DIY Automatic Pet Water Drinking System

I made this for my pet potbelly pig Oliver. But I’m going to show you how I made this super easy automatic pet water drinking system for any of your pets.

If you have visited me here on the blog before and read some of my previous posts, you might know we’ve moved to a 40-acre farm and adopted a mini pet potbelly pig named Oliver.

You might also have read that I started to build him his own house I’m now calling Olivers Piggy Palace!

For not having much experience in large DIY or construction projects prior to this before, I have to say I’m a fu**ing bad-ass!

I’ve been using the new Dewalt 21 Degree Brushless Cordless Battery Powered Framing Nailer to build Ollie’s Piggy Palace.

And I highly recommend it!

This is the EXACT package I bought.

I love that it comes with its own bag. Because to be honest this is an expensive tool and the bag protects it.

It’s finally done and I’ll be sharing it with you guys this week!

I finished it in the spring and since it’s been done we’ve tried to keep Ollie outside more since.

We adopted Oliver and he was severely overweight. Our hope was by building him a place outside he’s exercise more and shed some pounds.

He had been an inside pet pig since he has been born.

Now that it’s winter I keep him inside most of the time now. Because I’m a crazy pet parent and worry he’ll be too cold in his Piggy Palace (even though I installed insulation in it).

But during the summer it was too hot and I got paranoid about him not drinking enough water.

He’d been using a standard water bowl to drink his water.

If you don’t have any experience with pigs you could do a search and quickly find out that trying to come up with a drinking solution for pigs is a common struggle.

Oftentimes the pigs will either lay in their water bowls and try to use it like a kiddy pool.

Or they’ll tip it over and use it as a football or toy.

In Ollie’s case, he is just so large and due to his size (and the fact that he’s blind) he can’t help but to accidentally tip it over when he drinks.

This is started to become a problem especially when we have to run errands or be away from the farm.

If he tips it over early in the day then he’s left with no water when the sun is beating down.

So I started brainstorming on how I could possibly solve this problem.

After a bit of research, I stumbled upon this video that seemed very similar to what I wanted to do.

However, it was just a little too elaborate for my needs at this time.

Piggy Post | Easy DIY Automatic Pet Water Drinking System - This DIY automatic watering system is not only easy to put together but also very cheap in materials. www.heatherpaigeblog.com #DIY #farmlife #homesteading #watertank #petpig

I decided to simplify the water drinking system down to just a few materials.

I found these metal drinking nipples made for the water drinking system I was hoping to create.

These nipples can be purchased at a Tractor Supply or Livestock store.

Or you can buy them on Amazon and get five of them for cheaper than what you’d pay for one (this is what I did).

Note: Similar nipples can be found for all kinds of livestock including chickens. Chickens require a different nipple because of their beaks.

You can take those nipples and feed barrels and create an automatic pet water drinking system.

It holds a large amount of water for your animals whenever they are thirsty.

Plus they won’t be able to tip it over.

This DIY automatic water system is not only easy to put together but also very cheap in materials.

Another great thing about it is you can also use it in the winter. Simply add a tank heater through the top to keep the water from freezing.

The temperatures just started to drop low enough to freeze the water here in Colorado. So I’ll be getting a water tank heater soon myself.

Here’s how I did it.

Materials Needed for the Automatic Pet Water Drinking System:

Stainless Steel livestock Nipples
Plastic Feed Barrel
Drill
11/4″ Shank Bit
Threaded Connector
Plumbing Leak Proof Connector

Instructions:

Thoroughly rinse out the barrel so ensure clean drinking water.
Attach your drill bit to your drill, decide the best hight for your animals drinking and drill hole where appropriate.
Attach your threaded connector to your nipple.
Take Appropriate half of your Plumbing Leak Proof Connector with the seal attached and drop into barrel.
Carefully position and pull threaded connector and seal through the drilled hole.
Attach other half of the threaded connector to the outside of the barrels hole.
Attach Leak Proof Connector and nipple to the outer barrel connector. And you’re done!
Fill barrel with water and place in a secure easily fillable and assessable place for your animal.

Your animal likely won’t know how to use the water system right away.

As a tip: Take some peanut butter and smear it on the nipple to attract them to the nipple and show them how it works.